Which is why I can't agree with the opinion that Epic does nothing for consumers because I literally get free games every week and I got $10 off 3 different games on their bill. I wasn't the only one who took advantage of the sale either. Whether or not that's meaningful to you is besides the point.
When I say "does nothing for the costumer" I mean in the overall dynamic they are promoting. They push the Epic Games Store as a fundamental shift in the way games will be sold to the customer. This contract is spun as "better developer percentages" and "curation." That's their "benefit" to me, that their market is curated. As a consumer, that reads to me as a more limited selection to chose from, and I can already back that view up with specific examples of games. The existence of a few sales or discounts you receive is literally meaningless, we already had things like that before in the "old" system. Our position as consumers hasn't improved, in fact it's gotten demonstratively worse as lack of competition (tm) from actual stores selling the same product has vanished:
Also, regarding "throwing ire towards the companies taking these deals," I do that plenty. I've called it a callous, short sighted "fuck you got mine" attitude that screws developers who aren't lucky enough to get into the club. I've typed literally pages worth of posts explaining how it's creating a division in the minds of gamers, using actual examples. Games being rejected from the Epic Games Store invites conversation about what was "wrong" with the game for them to get rejected. I've seen this happen with games with incredibly high review scores and sales on steam who got rejected from the EGS. They have talked about how that actually hurt their bottom line. I have bitched pretty constantly about how Yu Suzuki has poisoned the Kickstarter well, one I was very much planning on dipping from. Everybody who engages in these exclusivity deals deserves scorn, even if not being able to walk away from that amount of money is impossible. However, it is ultimately epic who is the most at fault, it's
their policy. They don't NEED exclusivity. I buy from lots of stores beyond steam. If they competed in ways that actually benefited the consumer, they'd come. Epic isn't some startup in a 4 bedroom house trying to compete with the big boys, they ARE the big boys. Virtually every game on the market uses their engine, they own fortnite, they're one of the biggest, most powerful companies on the planet. How about competing the usual way? Spreading the word on your client, advertising, really great deals for users, instead of throwing around money so that other stores can't even begin to compete? The cycle people
try to point to when they claim "competition is good" would actually occur if Epic was actually competing with the other stores instead of just buying exclusivity.
Regarding hating Epic, you'll find much of the PC community "
loved" Tim Sweeney when he argued against the Microsoft Windows Store. It wasn't the person they loved, it was the message. Once Epic adopted the same type of mentality the Microsoft Windows Store adopted, the ire went towards the person they used to "love". It's not a hatred of any company, it's this practice people dislike. And it's pretty constant and consistent, no need to try and paint it as some sort of double standard.
trello.com
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